-or-
So you think YOU can do the robot?
Via @grandin
Sorry, sweetheart – this is how it’s done.
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I award myself extra points for not making a ‘domo arigato’ joke.
Atomic seaplane
I can credit Charlie Stross and Pluvialis for my interest in the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program. My interest in seaplanes has been with me as long as I can remember – it may have started with seeing floatplanes at my grandparent’s cottage on Trout Lake (outside of North Bay, Ontario).
The two things came together in 1950’s San Diego at the offices of Convair.
Track one – a tornado damaged B-36 (six turning, four burning)
is rebuilt as the NB-36H Crusader.
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The cockpit was well shielded (I hope).
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Track two started with some design work on Betta 1 and Betta 2 (1950)
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which led to the F2-Y Sea Dart.
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Put them together and you get the Model 23B Atomic Seaplane:
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Scan from Convair Advanced Designs: Secret Projects from San Diego, 1923-1962
As they say – what could go wrong?
Tragopan temminckii
Another great post over at BibliOdyssey sends me off on a surf-fest. This time it’s a series of Chinese bird portraits – among the ducks and birds of paradise and finches and pheasants I spied a tragopan. Tragopans live in an area that’s been front and center in my reading list lately; off I clicked to see if I could figure out which species was being represented.
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I’m basing my ID on the lappet – obviously, I’m guessing Tragopan temminckii. A bit of etymological fun:
These birds are commonly called “horned pheasants” because of two brightly-colored, fleshy horns on their heads that they can erect during courtship displays. The scientific name refers to this, being a composite of tragus (billy goat) and the ribald half-goat deity Pan (and in the case of the Satyr Tragopan, adding Pan’s companions for even more emphasis). *
Under the entry for Pan’s pals, the always helpful Wikipedia cautions us that satyr is “not to be confused with Satire or Seder”.
Here’s a picture of a half-extended lappet (to reassure you that I’m not just making stuff up):
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And a great bit of Youtube showing a Temminck’s displaying:
Colobus Day Weekend
Some highlights from the long weekend:
A front-long (its opposite is back-long) bike sighted at the Farmer’s Market Saturday morning.
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From there, off to the Athenæum book sale.
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Two words that cause my heart to race (even if there’s a little staining) – tipped in.
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More images from Ehon mushi erami here.
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They’re the reason for the season!
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Most of the rest of the long weekend was spent outside.
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